The 49ers fly to New Orleans on Sunday, where the world's biggest circus awaits them.

Imagine the Super Bowl and the run-up to Mardi Gras happening at the same time, then stop imagining. It's a reality.

Amid this madness, the 49ers hope to file the latest chapter in Bay Area sports history. The plot has gotten pretty complicated of late. In the past year, we've witnessed two NFC Championship Games. A Final Four for Stanford women's basketball. We watched the U.S. Open pitch its massive tents at the Olympic Club. The America's Cup paid a visit. Then we followed the A's into the playoffs and the Giants to a World Series championship. Throw in two major bowl appearances for Stanford, including its first Rose Bowl win in 41 years, and you have the whole story.

There has never been a time quite like this in Bay Area sports. Everyone's winning (with a few notable exceptions). And standing at the center of the storm are the 49ers. If they deliver. If San Francisco lays claim to world championships in baseball and football, then we can say this is truly the Golden Age of Bay Area sports. An era when Freaks and Beards and Jive Turkeys walked the Earth. When Luck and Coco shared the stage with Freddy P. Soft and a guy named Buster.

So, enjoy the Super Bowl this week, clowns and beads and all. It could be the apex of this remarkable time.

Nothing says Super Bowl like "prop bets."

These are the ridiculous wagers that inhabit the lunatic fringe of the game, allowing people to drop money on any number of ludicrous propositions.

How long will it take Alicia Keys to sing the national anthem? You can bet whether it'll be over or under 2 minutes, 15 seconds, according to the betting agency Bovada.

Will Beyoncé be joined by Jay-Z during the Super Bowl halftime show? It's 2-to-3 he won't show.

Can you really bet on this stuff? Yup. That doesn't even scratch the surface.

You can bet on how long the postgame hug/handshake will last between the two "Har-bros." The over-under is 7.5 seconds.

And if you're looking for a more spiritual angle, gamble on how many times Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis will mention the Lord in his postgame interview. The over-under is three.

Take the over.

Adam Meyer is one of the country's best-known handicappers. He bet $1 million on the 49ers to get to the Super Bowl last year. And he lost. But don't hold that against him. He's back in the game, saying he could win up to $4.5 million on a complicated Super Bowl hedge that involves the Ravens winning.

That's for him to sweat. He has a more interesting take on this.

According to Meyer, Colin Kaepernick has the most prop bets since William "the Refrigerator" Perry roamed the backfield of the 1985 Chicago Bears. In other words, his fame and popularity are soaring.

People are dropping big money on the lanky kid from Turlock. Meyer says one intriguing bet is whether Kaepernick will compile 100 yards rushing and 300 passing in the big game. Fat chance, says the insider.

"There's no way Kaepernick will do that against the Baltimore defense," said Meyer.

Meyer also suggests you might want to bet Aldon Smithwill get a sack. He's been shut down for weeks, but the handicapper thinks he'll come through in the Super Bowl.

And if you insist on the goofy, find out whether Keys will play the piano during the national anthem.

"Years ago, I had info that Billy Joel would play the piano," said Meyer. "That made it longer."

That made the anthem longer. And that makes the wagering crazier.

But this is the Super Bowl. It's all nuts.

Not for nothing, but we saw the Kaepernick revolution coming.

Back in May 2011, here's what we had to say about the Turlock Tornado, culled from a report on his benchmark college comeback against Boise State:

"The Wolf Pack's quarterback became a Nevada legend that night, and now he brings his act to San Francisco, where 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh hopes to mold the team's second-round pick into the quarterback of the future.

As sculptures go, Kaepernick is an athletic specimen in need of work. He's a shade under 6-foot-5, 230 pounds and runs a 4.53 40-yard dash. He has a strong arm but is criticized for winding up a bit too much - much like Tim Tebow and Vince Young before him.

But when it comes to intangibles, Kaepernick is impressive.

As SFGate's Niners Insider, Kevin Lynch, blogged earlier this week, there's a "Montana Factor" to consider when it comes to young Colin.

Just like Auburn's Cam Newton, Kaepernick generated four fourth-quarter comebacks in his career. This past season, he not only knocked off Boise State in the last seconds, but he also led a game-winning, seven-play, 44-yard drive against Fresno State, during which he completed a pair of crucial third downs.

In the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl played right here at AT&T Park, Kaepernick passed for 192 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for 76 yards in a 20-13 win over Boston College. It was indicative of how he had become the first player in NCAA history to pass for 10,000 yards and run for 4,000.

In the days running up to that bowl game, I had the chance to meet Kaepernick and can report that he's an intelligent kid with a great attitude.

He told me he was so skinny in high school, his coach wouldn't let him run the ball for fear of injury. He told me he had been working for four years straight to get bigger, going from 170 pounds as a freshman to his current 230-plus.

And he told me he's had to prove himself at every level - and hopes to do it again in the NFL.

When I asked him who he rooted for growing up in Turlock, I figured the kid would say the Niners. Or maybe the Raiders.

Nope. Kaepernick was actually born in Wisconsin, before his parents moved him to Turlock at the age of 4. And they're still serious Cheeseheads, faithful to the Packers through and through.

Oh, the irony. A lifelong Packers fan from Turlock is coming in to rectify the Niners' biggest gaffe in years - passing on a quarterback from Chico named Aaron Rodgers who just won the Super Bowl for the Packers."

Well, he beat Rodgers already. Let's see if he can now beat Jim Harbaugh's brother.